TOWNSHEND — What race are you?” the woman from the census asked me years ago. She reeled off a long list of choices from Asian to Zulu.
“I'm a redneck.” I said after considering the options carefully.
“Yeah, I like that.” she said, scribbling fast.
Long a term of derision, the word redneck has undergone a subtle transformation. Many people have reclaimed it with a sense of pride.
In the past, rednecks have been given a bad reputation for being backward, uneducated, and poor.
This ignores the virtues of redneck culture. Where would we be without the excitement of Nascar or the poetry of country music?
Rednecks are commonly dismissed as being stupid, yet many who identify themselves as rednecks build motorcycles, construct homes, and do many other things that require a lot of skill.
When I did a job in New York City, people would ask me where I was from. Their responses were identical. “Vermont - yeah, lots of rednecks up there,” they would say, a dismissive tone in their voice.
I wondered how many of them could hang Sheetrock, hunt, or drive in the snow.
In an era where many people go to great lengths to be politically correct, it is still acceptable to look down on rural people.
Now we've gone through another census. I wonder how many Vermonters passed over Polynesian or Pygmy and wrote in “Redneck”?